Written by Archie O’Reilly
If IndyCar’s return to the Milwaukee Mile teaches the series one thing, it should be that a dose of the old is still crucial to allow the series to evolve.
This only resonates more given comments that have since emerged from Penske Entertainment president and CEO Mark Miles, who suggested (via the IndyStar) he wants IndyCar to stop being “the ‘old’ us” and “quit being what we’ve been”.
Miles mentioned wanting to innovate and move away from the prospect of returning to tracks such as Virginia’s 0.750-mile Richmond Raceway oval or New York’s famed Watkins Glen road course. He wants to explore other markets instead.
But in order for IndyCar to evolve as its leadership wishes, a balance needs to be struck. Not everything has to be brand-spanking new to oversee growth back into a wider-known entity.
IndyCar’s trip to Milwaukee - the first since 2015 - proved that the old is by no means bad. Nine years’ absence did not hinder the product whatsoever as two vintage IndyCar short oval races were delivered across the doubleheader weekend. And the success of the event on the 1.015-mile flat oval certainly renders Miles’ comments ill-timed.
It is entirely possible to return to these former venues and pull off a successful weekend.
“You could just hear the cheers of everybody,” said Arrow McLaren’s Pato O’Ward, winner of the first race. “Everybody was just super into it, brought a lot of energy. That was fantastic to see. [It has] really been amazing. We could get through traffic and stuff like that so that usually means it’s eventful pretty much everywhere. It was definitely a success.”
The product that Milwaukee offered up was that which those surrounding IndyCar so often marvel about. And it begs the question: why does it matter if IndyCar has already raced at a track in the past if it can deliver such events to put the series on the map?
Because that is what it turned out to be - an event that IndyCar should be sold on. Fans would dearly rue missing out on that Milwaukee brand of racing if IndyCar veers away from the idea of revisiting past tracks, whether ovals or otherwise.
“I love a challenge,” six-time champion Scott Dixon said. “This weekend was a challenge on many fronts. Qualifying was a mess, practice [too]. It was full of highs and lows. That kind of sums up Milwaukee.
“That’s what you have in the race. You kind of have these peaks, everything is going well, then you might right run on top of somebody or get high, they come by, you’re kind of in the crap again.
“It’s fun. I love it just because it is so difficult.”
The watchword of the weekend among drivers was “fun” as they relished Milwaukee’s return - many competing on the track for the first time - and the challenges posed. The fans that did a good job at populating the grandstands also embraced the event.
IndyCar had previously raced 113 times at Milwaukee but never had more on-track passes been recorded than the 763 in the weekend’s second race. Drivers loved the old-school product drawn out by the old-school track, offering a reminder of the product that makes up the core of Indy car racing.
“We were banging, side-by-side… but it was legit. That’s how it should be,” said Team Penske’s Scott McLaughlin, winner of the second race, after a close-quarters battle for the lead with Andretti Global’s Colton Herta.
“I knew he was there. I slid up a little bit. He pinched me. We hit. It was proper. It was so cool. Like being in Supercars again - you’re just banging doors. This place is nice because you haven’t got much banking. It’s like a big road course. It was fun.”
IndyCar and Firestone appear to have sussed out a suitable oval package in the era of additional weight from the all-new hybrid unit. There were two disappointingly processional races at Iowa Speedway - a test at Milwaukee having had a similar feeling prior - but events at World Wide Technology Raceway and Milwaukee have since been excellent.
Across the last month, a reminder has been offered as to why oval racing is integral to IndyCar and cannot be so easily dismissed.
Milwaukee showcased the element of glorious chaos in short oval racing. There were a pair of races similar to those Iowa became renowned for prior to a NASCAR-led repave for 2024, featuring passing through the field race-long, including for the lead.
Tyre degradation was a big factor - Firestone finding the sweet spot for a good spectacle - and the disparities in car speeds also helped to bring lap-down traffic into play. Drivers were forced to be creative in their use of multiple open lanes in order to navigate traffic and overtake for position; spatial awareness and timing of passes were both key.
“Some guys could run in other areas so it locked them into one or two lanes, other guys could run the whole three, four lanes,” Herta reflected. “It was an interesting race.”
It was a frenzy that drew the best out of drivers’ skill sets. And if it wants to get the best out of its competitors, IndyCar should not be looking past more events in Milwaukee’s ilk.
You would be hard-charged to find anybody calling the weekend a failure. So why would the decision be taken to neglect following suit and returning to more old favourites? Tapping into the roots of what previously made the series so popular can still be beneficial.
As shown by the respectable turnout at Milwaukee, this sort of event can easily succeed when promoted right. And the promotion for Milwaukee, based on accounts of locals being unaware of the race, could have been better still; with even better promotion, this type of event could be even more of a triumph.
There are plenty of other examples of tracks that have been off the calendar and returned too - Milwaukee is by no means an anomaly.
For one, Road America was absent between 2008 and 2015 but returned and is a favourite of many and integral to the IndyCar season. The likes of Gateway, Laguna Seca and Portland were absent from the schedule for over a decade at some point too.
It is important that the series does take fans’ views into account.
Apprehension about filling grandstands is understandable - racing is a business in every facet. But if you want to fill the grandstands, letting fans have a voice is important as they will turn up to events they feel they can get behind.
There is merit to listening to what the fans want out of a calendar, whether returns to Watkins Glen or Richmond or Texas or Pocono or Kentucky or Michigan (or many others being bandied around). As shown by Milwaukee, one would imagine they are much more likely to rally behind an event they hold such a desire for.
And listening to drivers is important too. DIVEBOMB spoke to IndyCar rookie Toby Sowery last month. And it was the “high speed, flowing, ballsy” Watkins Glen that he regarded as his favourite track in the United States.
“It’s one that I’d never been to but I held in high regard and hoped to go to,” Sowery said after a maiden visit to the track for an IMSA SportsCar Championship race. “[The saying goes]: ‘Never meet your idol because they disappoint.’ It was that situation where I hoped it didn’t disappoint and it didn’t. It was such a good track.”
So the fact that Miles uttered an expletive when talking about the prospect of a Watkins Glen return makes little sense.
It is these fabled tracks - valuably more raw and authentic than many a new street track or the multi-hundred-million dollar exclusive Thermal Club - that are critical to a sport steeped in history. It does not add up that Miles believes IndyCar needs to “quit what we’ve been” when it is tracks such as Watkins Glen that have brought such success in the past.
This is not to say innovation is bad or cannot be good. IndyCar needs to try new avenues in order to make the step forward everybody wants to see. But that should be coupled with sticking close to tradition and not sacrificing your identity.
There are positives in the plans laid out by Miles. There is an intention to plug the early-season multi-week gaps between races in the lead-up to the Month of May, featuring a new event and, as reported by the Associated Press, revitalised attempts at a Mexican race.
The new-for-2026 US event is reported by the IndyStar to be a street race in a different market amid Miles’ targeting of “urban markets” in a bid to “take markets over”. But that does appear to be easier said than done.
IndyCar can only go so far by adding more and more street events before a ceiling is struck. Yes, it looks appealing racing downtown in the shadows of high-rise skyscrapers and creates some artistic photographs. But chief in consideration should be the racing product.
Street circuits are vital in the right quantity. But their characteristics, filled with 90-degree corners, cannot not be fairly similar race-to-race. There has to be consideration that the street circuit option can become exhausted.
IndyCar prides itself on a diverse array of circuits, which could be lost if more street events are added to the detriment to a wider assortment of fan-favourite road courses or ovals.
Opening up a new market somewhere with one of Miles’ intended street tracks could be beneficial in increasing the awareness of IndyCar. But while fans on the east coast continue to cry out for a race, the market suggested by the IndyStar is Dallas.
Dallas is not in a new market as such, rather just opening up a return to Texas. And a street race in Dallas would fall less than an hours’ drive from Texas Motor Speedway.
If IndyCar was to return to Texas, why not make an effort, above everything, to get back to the 1.5-mile oval?
It was lost to scheduling circumstances out of IndyCar’s control in the Olympic year of 2024 but had provided a barnstormer of a race the year prior - one of the very best in recent memory. If it is promoted well and the fan uptake prevents the bare grandstands that became a dejecting reality, it is hard to see why IndyCar should not try to return.
Texas Motor Speedway is unlike anything else on an IndyCar calendar glaringly devoid of a superspeedway outside of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. So it would seem obvious to target returning there over visiting a fifth street circuit with similar characteristics.
If fan uptake is a concern with an oval in the same state, it is by no means a given that a possible Dallas street race - something that hardened IndyCar fans are less behind than a return to the oval - would be any better-attended. Maybe it means the race is more in sight and in mind but the viewing of an oval race for fans is as good as it gets.
Milwaukee showed that oval races - even if slightly outside of city centres - can work if awareness is spread as it should be. Ovals have to be preserved and their value maintained.
That cannot be negotiable - they separate IndyCar from any other top single-seater series.
“Not saying road and street courses isn’t satisfying, because I’ll never forget my first race win, but it’s incredible winning on an oval,” McLaughlin said after Milwaukee. “A lot of things have to go right. You have to make the right moves at the right time.
“That’s probably why I put Indy above a championship in some ways because it’s just incredible how perfect it has to go on an oval. It’s the backbone of our sport.”
Seeing fast cars on city streets is cool and may attract more casual viewership. But if sold correctly, the appeal of oval racing is something different. It is higher octane and offers side-by-side racing like nowhere else on earth. It is these tracks that bring the very best out of drivers and their machinery.
The reality is that few new ovals are being built and there are more concerning images of some being destroyed. If IndyCar’s leadership is to dismiss returning to former tracks, it may well reach a stage where ovals diminish as IndyCar’s core. That risk cannot be run.
Still, the idea of IndyCar bulking up the initial part of the season in future years is encouraging. The lack of consistent events to begin the campaign has been a problem limiting much start-of-season momentum.
Ideally, adding events would also serve as an opportunity to expand the calendar nearer to 20 races - obviously contingent on factors such as television windows and costs. Prolonging the season and not capping it at 17 races feels like another inroad to allow attention on the series to be prolonged.
Visiting Mexico as part of this pre-May run of races would be a big piece of progress. It would be IndyCar’s first venture outside of the US and Canada since Sao Paulo in 2013 while also satisfying the wish for the series to remain North America exclusive in-season.
It has taken some contention and a U-turn - evidencing the value of fans’ voices - to get to a stage where racing in Mexico may be on the agenda.
Miles had come under fire for suggesting O’Ward is not as famous as former Mexican CART driver Adrian Fernandez, attributing this as part of why a long-chased race back in Mexico has not yet materialised. He implied O’Ward was only just starting to emerge on billboards.
During the Milwaukee weekend, this led to IndyCar coming under fire for its own promotion from O’Ward, who tweeted a picture of a NASCAR Truck Series promotional billboard by the track as it hosted the IndyCar doubleheader. The NASCAR event had taken place the week prior.
It was wrong for the series to pin reliance on O’Ward to obtain a race in Mexico in the first place; there should be confidence in its own product to warrant a race. At the same time, it is important for the series to acknowledge, reward and embrace its superstars.
O’Ward’s status was undermined by Miles. His legions of fans, including those present when on McLaren Formula One reserve duty at the Mexican Grand Prix, more than justify IndyCar visiting Mexico.
At what track? So much is unclear. There is a definite argument that F1 being in place at and NASCAR beating them to the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez means it may be more beneficial to venture to a different track to stand out further.
Miles has also hinted at a future post-season international series, which is the sort of innovation that should help to expand the awareness of IndyCar globally.
It is understandable that the logistics of venturing abroad during the season are somewhat prohibitive of in-season international events. The vast majority of teams’ sponsors are American-based and would not benefit from racing internationally.
But IndyCar has a driver base representing multiple continents and viewership in all corners of the world and it is important that the series does tap into this. A run of races after the conclusion of the championship season would again help to extend the portion of the year for which IndyCar has eyes focused on it.
Climatic factors would likely rule out a European event - unfortunate given the vast amount of drivers from across the Atlantic and the increasing growth of IndyCar in Europe. But returning to Australia, Japan or South America is definitely something that could help to appease IndyCar’s goal of international growth.
The concern is that an exhibition feeling to this out-of-season series of races could lead to objections, with sponsors needing some meaning to get behind. But forming an ‘international cup’ of sorts - with a worthy monetary reward - allows a competitive feel if promoters or partners could cover logistical costs such as shipping to make it financially viable to teams.
Still, IndyCar ultimately cannot be locked into one sole way of thinking. These new, innovative ideas need to be coupled with consideration for “the ‘old’ us”.
An international series or expansion to racing in Mexico offer signs at the innovation that is needed to move forward. But the series also cannot ignore what was successful in the past. Combining the two feels like the true avenue back to widespread popularity.
Ask drivers and they will say the old-school nature of the series is the USP of IndyCar. That includes the sort of racing product that enthrals and engages fans. If that can be combined with some modernity, IndyCar may have the perfect balance.
As Milwaukee showcased in fine form, old really can be gold and just as good a showcase of what IndyCar can offer.
Comments